Assassin's Creed Costumes More Popular in Light of Movie

We take a look at Michael Fassbender’s Assassin’s Creed and speculate its effects on the video game franchise, costumes from the game and general fan following.

By Shrey Sankalp

Even if you’ve not picked up an Assassin’s Creed title (or a video game in general, even), I’m fairly certain you’re well-versed with the franchise. With its annual installments a-la FIFA and Call of Duty coupled with countless people wearing the iconic costume and wrist blades every Halloween, how could you not be?

UbiSoft

The Assassin’s Creed franchise can primarily be termed as an action-adventure one, with some elements of science fiction thrown in to shake things up. Of all the nine games in the franchise, each game follows a relatively clockwork formula – the protagonist is taken in by Abstergo Industries to relive the memories of his ancestors via a jacked up VR simulator called the Animus, where his ancestors are Assassins, a sect fighting for the maintenance of peace and order in the world against the Templars in a real historical location with real historical figures in the mix. The games’ Arkham-esque gameplay is a big draw for people in the sense of familiarity it offers while being suitable for fine-tuning, but the actual draw is the experience it offers, not in terms of the combat, but how it enables you to live in an actual era populated by actual people you must have read about at some point in school. The games’ character and costume design coupled with the feel of the world and background score really sells this aspect of the game, and it’s hardly a surprise the game has built up the fan following it has.

Just as with every popular franchise, the Assassin’s Creed fans take their passion for the series to a whole new level. It’s become rather unsurprising by this point to find people arguing deeply about whether Ezio was the best protagonist the franchise had, or whether Unity should have introduced the changes it did, or which era’s protagonist had the best costume (a somewhat personal choice, considering Revelations allowed the characters to alter their costumes thanks to a robust costume, but while we’re on the topic, my favorite costume is perhaps Ezio’s costume, with it having all the flourishes you’d expect of an Italian assassin’s costume) or question that’s a source of perpetual debate – is the Leap of Faith even possible?

UbiSoft/20th Century Fox

I find it extremely enjoyable to engage in these discussions about the franchise’s mythos with the fans, their passion for the franchise’s fake history is truly commendable. And I find the Assassin’s Creed fans to be really creative! My personal fondness for the costumes aside, I find that every Halloween, the best costume is usually an Assassin’s Creed costume, because the fans always add their own distinct touches to the costume that makes it stand out from the other costumes. It could be something as simple as a slight modification to the wrist blades or something more visible, such as alterations to the hood, or maybe design their own accessories. It's as if the costume companies understand and respect the fans’ passion too, as I find that Assassin’s Creed costumes are some of the most well designed costumes every year, and as someone who loves to put a costume on himself every Halloween, I can’t state how delightful it is.

As has become the norm with every property these days, if it’s popular enough, a movie adaptation is green lit. The same has happened with Assassin’s Creed (and Uncharted, following that news) with the new film out to close 2016. Now, there are some inhibitions about the film, both on the part of long term video game fans and most cinema enthusiasts, and I understand them to a certain extent. The video game fans are worried that the series’ vast mythos cannot be fit into a 120-ish minute movie while allowing fans the time to breathe (a common and well-deserved criticism of a similarly exposition reliant book series, Dan Brown’s Robert Langdon adaptations) and the average cinema enthusiast is worried that just as every video game to movie adaptation has failed so far, so will Assassin’s Creed, and for the same reasons – lack of an endless budget, inability to capture the look and feel, and cramming in of exposition. While all those concerns are to an extent valid, I feel this will be the film to prove the naysayers wrong and be a great video game adaptation. Firstly, the film has wisely chosen to adapt only the core premise of the video games, and has its own protagonist with a whole new setting (the Spanish Inquisition) which frees up the film from having to be overtly servicing of the established world, while giving it the freedom to establish its own. The all new setting and the all new design for the Animus indicate that’s the case, with the wrist blades and the retention of the hooded costume serving as a welcome touch of familiarity for the fans. Secondly, the cast and crew involved with the film is some of Hollywood’s greatest, with Michael Fassbender, Marion Cotillard and Jeremy Irons all either Academy Award winners or nominees and director Justin Kurzel being especially revered for his magnificent Macbeth adaptation. With a crew like this, and with their dedication to getting it right, you have to believe. You have to.

I strongly feel the film will be a success and a worthy addition to the Assassin’s Creed canon. The film’s aesthetic is extremely appealing, with the new setting enabling the filmmakers to demonstrate their own costumes and designs, and I feel they’ll be a huge hit. Make some space in your wardrobe, because Michael Fassbender’s costume is sure to find a way there, because let’s face it, who doesn’t want to look like Michael Fassbender? We can’t all very well look like him, but hey, with a costume like his, we can at least try, right?

(Bonus points to anyone who recites Magneto’s lines wearing Michael Fassbender’s Assassin’s Creed costume because hey, why not?)